Moneyball Update – Week 15

This truly was a defensive battle. Both offenses struggled throughout the game, although I do think the Jets struggles were mainly because of the inexperience of their quarterback, while the Falcons struggles were because the Jets defense is really, really good.

Not a great game in terms of earning cash for Moneyball offensively. The running game picked up as the game wore on, and Jason Snelling made a very good 20-yard run on the game-winning drive that was critical. Jerious Norwood had some nice third down conversions on passes out in the flat. Ryan didn’t play great and had 4 passes that should have been picks dropped by Jets defenders. Gonzalez and Roddy were both contained for most of the game, but both players made key catches on the final drive, with Gonzo catching the game winner and Roddy making a key third down conversion that put us deep in Jets territory. The Jets blitz gave the Falcons fits, particularly early, although they were a bit better late in the game at handling it. The interesting thing I’ve noticed about the blocking up front is how much less effective a run blocker Tyson Clabo appears to be with Ojinnaka playing beside him. He doesn’t get as good push or position in recent games with Dahl out of the lineup as he did earlier in the season. The blocking wasn’t bad considering who were facing, but not exactly a strong performance either.

PLAYER

PASS

RUSH

REC

BLOCK

SPEC

PEN

TOTAL

Jerious Norwood

$0

$4

$4

$0

$0

$0

$8.00

Jason Snelling

$0

$8

-$1

$0

$0

$0

$7.00

Matt Ryan

$6

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0

$6.00

Tony Gonzalez

$0

$0

$4

$0

$0

$0

$4.00

Michael Jenkins

$0

$0

$1

$1

$0

$0

$2.00

Sam Baker

$0

$0

$0

$2

$0

$0

$2.00

Tyson Clabo

$0

$0

$0

$2

$0

$0

$2.00

Michael Turner

$0

$1

$0

$0

$0

$0

$1.00

Marty Booker

$0

$0

$1

$0

$0

$0

$1.00

Justin Blalock

$0

$0

$0

$1

$0

$0

$1.00

Todd McClure

$0

$0

$0

$1

$0

$0

$1.00

Ovie Mughelli

$0

$0

$0

$1

$0

$0

$1.00

Roddy White

$0

$0

$1

$0

$0

-$1

$0.00

Quinn Ojinnaka

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0.00

Justin Peelle

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0

-$1

-$1.00

Will Svitek

$0

$0

$0

-$1

$0

$0

-$1.00

Eric Weems

$0

$0

$0

-$1

$0

$0

-$1.00

Defensively the Falcons were able to make some plays. Sanchez threw 3 picks, although in all three cases I think they were the result of poor throws/decisions rather than great plays made by the defenders. But still, Grimes had 2 and DeCoud 1. The Falcons were stacking the box for most of the game which kept the Jets running game in check. Chauncey Davis probably had the best game of his career, finishing with a tackle for loss, QB pressure, and the blocked field goal that gave the Falcons fairly good field position to set up the game-winning drive. He also got into a fight with Nick Mangold and played a lot of defensive tackle, summing up a pretty great day for him. Coverage was better in this game, but the Jets threw a lot of short passes besides the big bomb to Braylon Edwards. Again, I imagine if it wasn’t Mark Sanchez and a more experience and better QB lining up under center for the Jets, then we probably would have lost this one.